There are lots of little IT shops that may not have the technical know-how and resources necessary to assemble and operate virtual machines and get the most out of them, said Trent Fitz, NIMBOXX’s chief marketing officer. NIMBOXX hopes that these businesses will gravitate to the company’s KVM-based data-center-in-a-box.

A user who buys a NIMBOXX appliance will be able to load up virtual machines in roughly seven minutes after unpacking the box, connecting it to a computer to configure, typing in one’s IP address gateway, and naming the system. The system, including the virtual machines to be loaded, are hosted on a private cloud.

The Austin, TX-based firm builds its products on commodity hardware.

NIMBOXX launched in June 2012, and now employs 26 people. It expects to double its staff by the end of the year.

NIMBOXX is the latest startup to pack several data center functions into an appliance — other entrants here include Nutanix and Simplivity.

Some 32 pilot clients are using NIMBOXX’s platform, the bulk of which are small-to-medium-sized businesses that have been struggling with doing virtualization right, Fitz noted. “It is a Rube Goldberg contraption to keep costs down,” Fitz said. “[Companies] are spending hundreds of man-hours a year to manage their products.”

The company plans to launch the product broadly this June and is still working out pricing.

Check out NIMBOXX and the other six Launchpad finalists at the upcoming Structure event in San Francisco on June 18 and 19.